Psychology

Early Brain Development

• Long tube 3-4 Weeks (Forebrain, Midbrain, Hindbrain)

• Cerebellum 6 weeks (Fear, sense information, physical skills)

• Medulla Oblongata 20 weeks (Involuntary responses)
  

Piaget’s Stages of Development

• Sensorimotor (0-2) - Sense Information

• Pre-operational (2-7):
  Symbolic Function - Animism, Symbolic Play, Egocentrism
  Intuitive Thought - Centration, Irreversibility

• Concrete Operational (7-12): Seriation, Classification, Reversibility, Conservation, Decentration

• Formal Operational (12+): Abstract thought

Piaget’s Development of Intelligence

• Assimilation: Incorporating new experiences into existing schemas

• Accommodation: Schema changed to deal with a new experience

• Equilibrium: Schemas work and explain what tey experience

(Piaget) Strength’s and Weaknesses

1. Practical applications

2. Generated research

3. Did not look at the influence of social and cultural setting

4. Interviews - Subjective - Lack Validity

(Dweck) Strength’s and Weaknesses

1. Practical applications

2. Artificial settings - Lacks Validity

3. Quality of what’s being taught is not taken into account

Willingham’s learning theory (+ S&W)

• Factual knowledge precedes skill

• Knowledge frees space in the working memory for complex problem solving

1. Practical applications

2. Other studies to support

3. Did not emphasize individual learning

Piaget and Inhelder (3 Mountains)

• Investigates egocentrism in children at what ages

• Ten pictures

• Pre-operational stage is egocentric

• Operational stage is non-egocentric

(3 Mountains) Strengths and Weakness

1. Qualitative data

2. Experimental Methods - Reliability

3. Weakness to stages of development

4. Recreated experiments did not give the same results

Gunderson (Motivational Framework)

• Entity theory: Nature

• Incremental theory: Nurture

• 14, 26, 38 months

• 29 boys 24 girls

• Boys get more process praise than girls

(Gunderson) Strengths and Weaknesses

1. Natural environment - Ecological Validity

2. Researchers Unaware

3. Ethics are questioned - Parents uninformed

4. Overt observation leads to demand characteristics

5. Small sample - Lacks generalizability

Piaget’s Moral Development

5-10 Heteronomous (By others)

10+ Autonomous (Intent is important)

Kohlberg’s theory of development

Pre-conventional:
Stage 1 - Consequences Stage 2 - Self Interest

Conventional:

Stage 3 - Society Stage 4 - Law

Post-Conventional:

Stage 5/6 - Abstract

What are the different types of memory stores? how are they stored?

How is information forgotten?

Different types of memory problems

Short Term memory 15-30s 7 chunks information

Long term memory unlimited

Encoding is turning sensory information into a form that can be used and stored by the brain

Displacement - New information pushing old

Interference - Overwriting

(Amnesia) Retrograde - Before Anterograde - After

Bartlett’s Reconstructive Memory

Memories are reconstructions of events influenced by our schemas

Omissions - Leaving out ‘irrelevant Information

Transformations - Rational

Familiarization - Align with schemas

Rationalization - Adding details to give a reason something that may not have mad sense

(Bartlett) Strengths and Weaknesses

Real world Application

Ecologically Valid

Subjective

Unscientific procedures

Atkinson and Shiffrin Multi-store Model (+ S&W)

Sensory, Short term, Long term

Evidence to Support

Overstates role of rehearsal

Unlikely to only half one type of long-term memory

War of the ghosts (Gen + S&W)

Participants rationalized and omitted parts of the story

Natural task - Unfamiliar story

Reliable

Qualitative data

Could be his own reconstructive memory

Unscientific procedures

Petersonx2 Short Term Retention

To investigate duration of short term memory

24 students

Trigram - Numbers

Longer each student had to count backwards, less they were able to recall

(Petersonx2) Strengths and Weaknesses

Reliable - Standardized procedures

Demonstrates interference

Lacks mundane realism

Reductionism and Holism ISSUES AND DEBATES

Reductionism: Simplest Explanation

• Overly simplistic

Holism

• Something as a whole

• Difficult to achieve

Unipolar Depression

Symptoms:

• Suicidal tendency

• Not enjoying activities anymore

• Irregular sleep

• Extreme tiredness

• Lack of Self-esteem

• Feelings of guilt

• Anxious behavior

1 main symptom for 2 weeks with additional symptoms

Mild - 4 displayed

Moderate - 5/6 displayed

Severe - 7+

Genetic Explanation of Depression

Evidence that if someone in your family has been diagnosed with unipolar depression then there is a higher risk that you will also have depression.

Twin studies show evidence

Take away stigma

(Caspi) Serotonin gene variation shows evidence

Deterministic

Reductionist

Cognitive Explanation of Depression

Beck’s Cognitive/Negative Triad

• Negative views of the world, future, self

• Lead to magnification of problems

Ellie’s ABC Model

• Activating Event

• Beliefs (Rational/Irrational)

• Consequences

1. Takes into account events of a person’s life

2. Applied to therapy (CBT)

3. Hard to tell if irrational thoughts are a cause or symptom of depression

4. Some forms of depression cannot be explained by thought processes - Such as postpartum depression

Antidepressants

• SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) - Serotonin is available for longer

• SNRIs (Selective Serotonin/Noradrenaline Reuptake Inhibitors) - Serotonin/Noradrenaline is available for longer

• MAOIs (Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors) - Prevents Monoamine Oxidase from breaking down Serotonin/Noradrenaline

• (TCAs) Tricyclics - Boosts the effects of Serotonin/Noradrenaline

1. Make it easier to access other forms of therapy

2. Evidence to show drugs do work

3. Unpleasant side effects

4. More likely to relapse after

Addiction

3 symptoms for 1 month

Dependence Disorder

• Need to take the substance

• Quitting is hard

• Physical withdrawal symptoms

• Tolerance to substance

• Replacing daily activities

• Denial

Behavioral Addiction

• Need to do activity regularly

• Reducing is hard

• More often to get ‘buzz’

• Spend more time with activity

• Denial

Genetic Explanation of Addiction

Evidence that addiction can run in families.

• Twin studies

• Adopted children

• DDR2 gene is shown to be related to developing addiction

1. Scientific evidence to support

2. Help in understanding those in treatment of addiction

3. Reductionist - Does not consider social factors

4. No gene found to be related to addiction

Learning Theory Explanation of Addiction

• Classical conditioning: Learning by associations

• Operation conditioning: Leaning by the consequences of actions

• Social Learning theory: Observation and imitation of role models

Classical - Associated with positive feelings

Operant - Reinforcement (Reward)

Social Learning: Observing others

1. Suggests addiction is treatable

2. Helps explain relapse

3. Ignores biological factors (Except for operant conditioning)

4. Do not explain why only a small majority get addicted

Drug Therapy Treatment of Addiction

• Cope with effects of detoxication

• Reduce cravings

• Treats underlying problems

1. Evidence to show effectiveness

2. Help patients access other types of therapy

3. Evidence of effectiveness is mixed

4. Can worsen dependence addiction

Capsi 5HTT

• Aims to investigate why stressful events does not cause depression in all people

• 847 people taken part

• Longitudinal study (21st-26th birthdays)

• Those with short version of the gene were more likely to be diagnosed with depression than those with the long version of the gene

1. Generalizable

2. Self report data is not reliable

Young - Internet Addicts

• Investigates the use of CBT on a group with internet addiction

• 114 participants in the USA

• Questionnaire during 3rd, 8th, 12th therapy session then after 6 months

• Concludes CBT can be effective because it gives clients an increase in their ability to control their behaviors and is long term

1. Online CBT encourages those shy

2. Reliable data/consistent

3. Data may not be valid as participants filled it out themselves

4. No breakdown for each type of addiction

Structure of The Brain

• Frontal Lobe: Decision Making/Impulse Control/Attention

• Parietal Lobe: Perception

• Occipital Lobe: Visual Information

• Temporal Lobe: Auditory Information

Lateralization of function: Each Hemisphere has a different job.

The Corpus Callosum allows the two sides of the brain to communicate with each other.

Left Brain - Logical, Language, Speech (Broca’s area)

Right Brain - Creativity, Spatial Awareness, Music Ability, Recognizing faces

Females - Left/Thicker Corpus Callosum/Dominant in both

Males - Right/Dominant in one only

Neurological Damage

• Damage to the Fusiform Area can cause Prosopagnosia.

• Prosopagnosia - The inability to recognize faces

• Visual Agnosia - Inability to recognize objects/places

• Pre-Frontal Cortex Damage: Aggressive/impulsive behavior

Damasio (Phineas Gage)

• Built a 3D representation of Gage’s skull

• 3cm diameter 109cm long

• 20 different entry points 16 exit points

• Damage to white matter, frontal lobe

(Damasio) Strengths and Weaknesses

1. Researchers used modern day technology

2. Can make predictions about what changes to behavior we can expect

3. Information based on 150 years go, which not be very accurate

4. This case can not be generalizable

Sperry (Hemisphere Disconnection)

• Sperry wanted to see how the split brain compared to a normal brain

• 11 participants

• Visual task

• Right hemisphere can identify the objects

• Left hemisphere can name the objects

(Sperry) Strengths and Weaknesses

1. Qualitative Data - Reliable

2. Sample is too small

Social Influence (General)

Obedience - Obeying an authority figure

Conformity - Matching others to fit in

• Compliance: Going along even though we may privately disagree

• Internalization: Going along because we don’t know how to behave

• Identification: Temporary adopting the beliefs of groups only while present

• Deindividuation: Loss of personal identity in a crowd

• Bystander effect: failure to help another in need

Bystander intervention

Situational Factors

• Diffusion of responsibility: Larger crowd less action

• Pluralistic ignorance: Interpret the situation according to the reactions of others

• Cost of helping

Personal Factors

• Competence

• Mood

• Similarity

Conformity

• Size of the majority

• Unanimity of majority

• Task difficulty

• Locus of control - Internal/External

Milgram’s shock experiments

• Proximity of victim

• Proximity of authority figure

• Legitimacy

• Personal Responsibility

• Support of others

Pilivian (Good Samaritanism)

• To investigate what influences bystander intervention in a natural environment

• Cost of helping evident

• Similarity evident

1. Ecological Validity

2. Emotional distress

3. Removes demand characteristics

Haney, Banks, Zimbardo

• To investigate prison-guard conflict in a simulated prison environment

• 75 respondents 21 participants

• Stanford University

• Stopped after 6 days due to emotional distress

• Conformity to roles

(Zimbardo) Strengths and Weaknesses

1. Unethical - Emotional Distress

2. Demand characteristics- Lowers ecological validity

3. Limited generalizability

Learning theory Explanation of Criminality

Operant conditioning

• Reinforcement: Repeating

• Punishment: Avoiding

• Positive: Giving

• Negative: Taking away

Explains wide range of crimes but not all

Can remove undesirable behavior

Social leaning Explanation of Criminality

• Modelling those around us

1. Evidence to support

2. Explains why some people become criminals

3. Can only measure short-term effect

4. Some criminal behavior cannot be explained (Murder)

Biological Explanation Criminality

• Twin studies

• Adoption studies

• PEN score

Bandura Rossx2 (Transmission of aggression)

• To see if children would imitate aggression displayed by an adult

• 36 girls/boys 37-69 months

• Children who were exposed to the aggressive role model showed aggression

(Bandura Rossx2) Strengths and Weaknesses

1. Demand Characteristics

2. Ethical issues

3. Standardized procedure

Charlton (TV Broadcast)

• To investigate the effects of television on children’s behavior

• TV has little influence on the behavior of the children and were not copying the aggression they witnessed

(Charlton) Strengths and Weaknesses

1. Same primary school used

2. Natural experiment

3. Lacking generalizability

4. TV shows on the island may have contained less violence, so it is not the same on the mainland

Sleep & Dreaming

1. Stage 1 - Light sleep

2. Stage 2 - Sleep

3. Stage 3/4 - Deep Sleep

4. REM Sleep - Sensory Blockade/Movement Inhibition/Dreams

• 1 night 5 cycles

• 1 cycle = 90m

Influence on sleep

• Circadian Rhythms: 24h cycle (sleep WAKE cycle)

• Ultradian Rhythms: <24h cycle (sleep cycle)

• Superchiasmatic Nuclei controls circadian Rhythms

• Melatonin is produced in the pineal gland

• Zeitgebers: “Time Givers”

(Internal Influences on Sleep) Strengths and Weaknesses

1. Evidence the SCN has the role of setting the biological clock

2. Blind man 25h clock

3. Sleep Deprivation Rats

4. Evidence is from animals so cannot be generalized to humans

(External influences on sleep) Strengths and Weaknesses

1. Practical Applications

2. Evidence

3. Differences in findings

4. Not natural studies can affect results

Narcolepsy

• Excessive daytime sleepiness

• Cataplexy Loss of muscle power)

• Hallucinations

• Cells in the hypothalamus unable to produce hypocretin

• Genes

• Stress/trauma

• Evolution

Freud’s theory of dreaming

• Dreams involve symbols that are analyzed by a psychoanalyst

• Id - Want

• Superego - Cannot have

• Ego - Decision/Balance

(Freud) Strengths and Weaknesses

1. Qualitative data

2. Evidence to support

3. Unscientific

4. Ungeneralizable

Hobson/McCarley (Activation Synthesis)

• Genetic Explanation for dreaming

• Dreams are the result of random firing in the pons, the brain receiving this and trying to make sense of it

1. Evidence to support

2. Ethical (Animal testing)

3. Non-generalizable because of animal testing

4. People report dreams have meaning, not random

5. Outdated

6. Model still being used

Fred (Little Hans)

• Freud used evidence from little Hans to prove development of psychosexual stages

1. Qualitative data

2. Scientific procedures

3. Lack generalizability

4. Results may be biased

5. Can be explained by learning theory instead

Siffre (6 months in a cave)

• Found variation in cycle when zeitgebers removed

1. Quantitative and qualitative

2. Longitudinal study

3. Lighting is a problem

4. Not generalizable